Chapter 28
1217 Words
28
We rushed across the sand. The search parties scoured the beach and the high road, but I noticed they avoided the left-hand cliffs of the calm bay. The rumors of the ghostly lady kept them far from that cursed place.
Stephanie and I reached the edge and found a wind-worn set of stone steps like those on the opposite side. We climbed the stairs and, though winded, made it to the top. The darkness of the night was made darker by a light layer of clouds above us.
I leaned forward and squinted my eyes. “We should’ve brought a flashlight or something.” A soft, shrill whistle caught my attention. I whipped my head to Stephanie. Her wide eyes told me she’d heard it, too. “Come on.”
I led the way across the cliffs. The rough water of the ocean crashed against the other side and splashed droplets of water at our feet. Puddles dotted the rocky top.
We were a hundred feet from the end of the cliff when I spotted shadows. One piggish-snouted one was familiar. It was the sus from before, the one who’d watched me on the beach as I handled my Soul Stone. Two dragon men with their wings unfurled stood on either side of him. One of them held Colin by the shoulders. The lad’s arms were pinned to his sides by rope and his wings were pinned to his back.
Stephanie and I made it to within ten feet of them before the sus’s deep voice rang out across the cliffs. “That’s close enough.”
I stopped and glared at him. “Let him go.”
“Help me!” Colin yelled.
“It’ll be all right,” I told him.
The sus held out his hand. “Only if you hand over that Soul Stone.”
“I don’t have it on me,” I lied.
He chuckled and shook his head. “You’re a terrible liar, now hand it over or-” He nodded at his henchman.
The dragon man lifted Colin into the air and turned to face the ocean side of the cliffs. Colin squirmed. “Help! Please help me!”
“Stop!” I shouted.
The sus stretched his hand closer to me. “Only if you give me the stone.”
I pursed my lips, but reached into my pocket and drew out the stone. The Soul Stone pulsed with its green light. I nodded at Colin. “Set him down.” The sus nodded at the dragon man who set Colin back on the ground. “Now untie him.”
The sus shook his head. “I can’t do that. The little boy might fly away, and then my plan would be ruined.”
“You can’t get away, anyway. We’re on a cliff, remember?” I pointed out.
My foe grinned. “I’ve got a boat waiting for me, but that’s none of your business. Now hand over the stone.”
“First the boy.”
“The stone, or the boy learns he can’t float in the ocean.”
I pursed my lips and gripped the stone tightly in my hand. Colin shook as he stared pleadingly at me. I sighed and marched toward them. One of my heavy feet stepped into a puddle and water splashed onto my hand. I felt something squirm in my palm that held the stone. An idea struck me.
I stopped five feet from the group and I held up the stone. “You want this? Then catch it.”
I tossed the stone into the air. The sus and his men watched the arc like birds watching a shiny object. I knelt and scooped up a handful of water. A small dragon formed from my hand as the stone started its downward fall.
The sus caught the stone as I cupped my hands together and stretched out my arms in front of me. “I hope you like getting wet!”
My foes returned their attention to me as my dragon, now twice the size, drew itself from my hand and lunged at them. Its wet, snapping jaws wrapped around the head of the dragon who held Colin. His scream was garbled by the water. He released the boy and tried to grab the water dragon, but he couldn’t get a grip on the water.
Colin stumbled toward us, but tripped on a stone. Stephanie rushed forward and caught him. “Get back!” I shouted at her.
She nodded and led the young boy away. I returned my attention to the sus and his henchman. One dragon man was still trapped in my watery prison, but the sus stepped back with a grin on his face. He tossed the whistle onto the ground and raised his arms.
“It was a pleasure doing business with you,” he called out as the freed dragon man flapped into the sky and grabbed his boss’s hands.
Together the pair flew into the sky. I pulled my dragon off the abandoned man who collapsed unconscious to the ground and turned the watery fury on them. My dragon stretched itself to the limit, but its jaws missed the sus’s heels by half an inch. I rushed to where they stood and glared up at their disappearing figures above me.
My foot kicked something. I looked down. The whistle. I grinned and picked up the instrument. There was a theory I had to try out. I took a deep breath and blew.
The sharp whistle blew across the calm bay waters and echoed against the opposite cliff. It wasn’t a moment later that two groups of dragon men, one made up of the guards and the other with Xander in the lead, flew in my direction. They aimed for me.
I pointed at the sus and dragon man who flew across the ocean. “Get them!”
The guards and Xander’s group turned toward the sus and his henchman. The dragon man, seeing their pursuers, promptly dropped his heavy load. The sus’s scream reached me.
Fortunately for him, the guards were fast. Two of them swooped down and caught each of his arms. The dragon henchman couldn’t match the speed of Spiros, and was duly caught. They were flown back and dropped at my feet. The sus looked up at me and shrank back.
I knelt in front of him and held out my hand. “Give it.”
He reluctantly dropped the Soul Stone into my palm. I stood and turned to Xander as he landed neatly near me. I held up his whistle and grinned. “You have to make me one of these.”
He strode over and wrapped me tightly in his arms. His twinkling eyes looked down on me with a teasing light. “Will trouble never cease to follow you?”
I shook my head. “Nope, but about that whistle-”
Xander reached into his shirt and drew out a small whistle exactly the size as the other one, but made from the local driftwood. “Only if you say please.”
I rolled my eyes. “Pretty please?”
“Miriam.” I glanced at Stephanie.
Colin stood in front of her with his ropes gone. He rushed over and hugged my legs. “You saved me!”
I stooped and smiled as I held out his whistle. “Your whistle saved you, so keep good care of it, okay?”
He took the whistle and nodded. “I will!”
“Colin! Colin!” We looked down the cliff and watched his parents fly up to us. They embraced him in a tight family hug before his mother looked over at me.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
I smiled and shrugged. “It was nothing.” I looked up at Xander as he stood beside me. “So with everything closed here we’re off to our next adventure, right?”
He smiled down at me and nodded. “Always.”
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